“Do it or I go to Logan’s room. Your choice,” she added severely. I swallowed hard. Just the idea of her abusing my brother the way she had done to me was horrifying. But I turned to look into her glacial eyes and shook my head slowly, showing her clearly that I wasn’t going to do as she said.
“What the fuck is your problem, you little shit? Give her a kiss! Now!” Kim leaped to her feet but then frowned when she heard rapid footsteps on the floor above us. It sounded like someone was running through the kitchen. “Be quiet!” she whispered to me. Freezing in place as I approached the stairs, my eyes locked on the closed door at the top of them. My heart began to pound in my chest; I staggered back a few steps when someone kicked the door down. Kimberly gasped as two police officers came barreling down the stairs, weapons pointed right at her.
“Hands up!” The first one yelled while the other looked uncomprehendingly at the camcorder and then at Megan and me.
I felt an instinctive shame and a need to hide, so I backed into the corner and tucked my knees up against my chest to cover my body. Megan took refuge behind an old sofa, bursting into full-on sobs.
“Christ…” one of the officers muttered, running a hand over his shocked face.
“You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you,” one officer recited, handcuffing an unresisting Kimberly, who just smiled mockingly in return.
Then she turned to look at me and appeared to realize in that moment that I had been the one who called the police. Her bright eyes went stormy, her lips curled into a sly, plastic grin, and her blond hair tumbled back over her shoulders as the officer forced her to walk.
All at once, her expression shifted, and her face became such a twisted mask of rage that I froze, staring at her, unable to react.
I felt nothing. I didn’t cry.
I couldn’t understand that it was truly over.
The child-eating witch was walking away from me wearing handcuffs, cloaked in her sins and perversions.
She was going to pay for the things she’d done, and I would never see her again.
The memory of her, however, would stay on me, indelible as a tattoo.
No one was going to be able to give my destroyed childhood back to me.
I’d ended the war that Kimberly started, but nothing would ever be like it had been before.
I wasn’t a child anymore.
I was a monster, made by another human’s wrongs.
A monster made by Kimberly Bennett’s wrongs.
1
“I felt a wave of heaviness, like my body had been transformed into lead.”
Neil
“In exactly five minutes and…ten seconds, that’s going to explode,” the maniac on the end of the phone informed me. I was frozen in shock.
“So, still having fun playing with me, Neil?”
I considered the question.
My sister’s life hung in the balance, so I knew I had to be smart if I wanted to avoid the worst possible outcome.
“Clock’s ticking. Good luck.” Player ended the call.
I stood back up, staring vacantly in front of me in shock. For a second, I hoped this was just another nightmare. Anguish and fear that I wouldn’t be able to save Chloe swept over me, rendering me speechless. I had no idea what to do.
“Neil,” Logan called, moving toward me. I didn’t look at him.
“Hey, man. What’s happening? What’d he say to you?” Xavier clapped a hand on my shoulder and gave me the mildest shake, but it did nothing.
“Five minutes. We only have five minutes before the bomb goes off.” I spoke like a robot and moved my eyes slowly over to Logan, whose face was drained of color.
